Rick and Morty: Rixty Minutes Rewatch

July 7, 2015 7:19 AM - Season 1, Episode 8

Rick installs a cable box capable of receiving television transmissions from unlimited alternate dimensions, to his and Morty's delight. Another invention, which reveals the alternate dimension lives of his family members, results in controversy and feelers between Jerry, Summer and Beth, as they look upon the worlds of what might have been.

Rick and Morty can be watched for free on Adult Swim and with a paid subscription on Hulu.com.

posted by Atreides (23 comments total)

My favorite episode! Watched it in little 15-second snippets on Instagram when it was released that way. I love it to bits. So many big laughs. And the sudden veer into legit existential angst at the end...perfect.

Now gimme my fucking enchiladas.
posted by town of cats at 8:17 AM on July 7, 2015 [1 favorite]

Are most of the cable bits improvised ? They have an improv feeling to them.
posted by Pendragon at 9:49 AM on July 7, 2015 [1 favorite]

Yeah, it's got an almost improvisational feel to it.
posted by Dr-Baa at 10:00 AM on July 7, 2015 [7 favorites]

I have no idea of confirming it, either (because I'm too lazy to search the Internet), but it definitely felt like a Dan Harmon inspired improv bit, particularly "TWO BROTHERS."

I loved Morty's talk with Summer about being an impostor and eating only so far away from his decomposing body. This episode had at least two callbacks to previous episodes, which is awesome in terms of reminding us that the writers care about what they're doing, keeping track of past jokes or events and reusing them to great effect.
posted by Atreides at 10:18 AM on July 7, 2015 [2 favorites]

Isn't this the episode with the bit about Lorenzo Music and Bill Murray? Because I had never connected the dots before I heard it and it blew my tiny mind.
posted by Dr-Baa at 10:50 AM on July 7, 2015 [3 favorites]

I don't have anything specific to add, except that Ants in my Eyes Johnson makes me laugh every time I see it.
posted by hobgadling at 11:08 AM on July 7, 2015 [5 favorites]

Real fake dooooors
posted by town of cats at 11:42 AM on July 7, 2015 [2 favorites]

"Nobody exists on purpose, nobody belongs anywhere, everybody's gonna die. Come watch TV."

I need to know why I keep rewatching Mister Sneezy.
posted by whuppy at 11:48 AM on July 7, 2015 [4 favorites]

Also, big ups for Belly's "Seal My Fate" at the end. (Not to mention Mazzy Star at the end of Rick Potion No. 9)
posted by whuppy at 11:50 AM on July 7, 2015 [3 favorites]

Even bigger ups that they didn't go for the more obvious track picks from either band.

(BTW Belly's King is super-duper-underrated)
posted by Dr-Baa at 11:57 AM on July 7, 2015 [2 favorites]

I had forgotten Ants in My Eyes Johnson. ... I couldn't look away, but I didn't like looking, either. Ants in my eyes? ARGH.
posted by Atreides at 2:24 PM on July 7, 2015

I had forgotten Ants in My Eyes Johnson. ... I couldn't look away, but I didn't like looking, either. Ants in my eyes? ARGH.

And then there's Weekend at Dead Cat Lady's...... *shivers*
posted by kewb at 3:43 PM on July 7, 2015 [1 favorite]

This episode was the first thing to have me laughing so hard that I was crying and couldn't breathe since ... probably my first rewatch of Arrested Development. There needs to be a term for that variety of laughter.
posted by CheesesOfBrazil at 8:29 AM on July 8, 2015 [2 favorites]

(literally) Hysterical Laughter
posted by French Fry at 9:08 AM on July 8, 2015

Seeing the clip of Morty's talk with Summer is what got me to start watching the show.
posted by notbuddha at 9:30 AM on July 8, 2015 [2 favorites]

Has a statement as nihilistic as Morty's ever been as heartwarming as Morty's was, in context? Has "Come watch some TV?" every redeemed so much angst?
posted by Ipsifendus at 2:29 PM on July 8, 2015 [6 favorites]

Isn't this the episode with the bit about Lorenzo Music and Bill Murray? Because I had never connected the dots before I heard it and it blew my tiny mind.

Yup, in the "Gazorpazorpfield" segment. (This is the uncensored version.)
posted by Pronoiac at 11:18 PM on July 10, 2015 [1 favorite]

This was the episode that made me really appreciate this show. Morty's statement to Summer followed by the reconciliation between Beth and Jerry in the parallel dimension was just emotionally gutting. Then they followed that up with an extended hamster-up-the-butt joke.
posted by ob1quixote at 12:09 PM on July 11, 2015 [1 favorite]

The cable shows were amazing. Except that one with the dead cat lady. D:
posted by EndsOfInvention at 4:18 PM on December 1, 2015

King is, indeed, a fucking fantastic album.
posted by Navelgazer at 5:44 PM on December 29, 2015 [1 favorite]

I've been working my way through these, and I like them a lot, but I felt this episode kinda suuuucked.

So of course I check FF and people love it.

"Improvisational feel" seems more like rough draft random nonsense feel? My feel is like I just watched a bunch of low-effort crap reveling in being low-effort crap, like a bad Family Guy episode, or my posts, or something. The Two Brothers, the ants in the eyes, these were funny for about 2 seconds each but felt like they lasted about 15 hours somehow.

Only the hamster butt stinger seemed to build on itself maybe because it didn't have the narration and didn't cut to Rick and Morty exchanging some kind of dumb reaction.
posted by fleacircus at 11:11 AM on April 22, 2017

fleacircus, I agree. The little bits of plot in this episode were interesting and I like how it seems to be building something, but the endless TV stuff felt like super lazy writing and was very boring to sit through.
posted by polecat at 11:39 AM on March 5, 2018

This episode reminded me of a review of a George Clinton and P-Funk show I attended some time periods ago. The reviewer wrote that the show didn't unfold like a normal concert; the show started 75 minutes late, there wasn't a normal progression to the show, the songs lasted a long time (10-15 minutes), and at times it felt like everyone was playing rhythm and just sort of leaning back for long stretches of time. It was like a house party that had a bunch of everything going on, and you didn't know what the next room would bring. But overall it was something remarkable and funky and awesome, and the trick is follow their lead and let it groove.
posted by disconnect at 4:23 PM on February 12, 2020